On 10/22/00 Tim Cronin opined..
> It isn't EDI or XML, VAN vs. Internet. A product has to support all
options
> with true any to any mapping capability..... It has to support routing,
and
> intergration with major applications. The tool has to be just as good for
> internal app to app integration as it is with external integration. I
would
> never buy a product that was just an EDI translator. I would also never
buy
> an intercompany application to application integration solution that
didn't
> support EDI....
I must disagree. If I need to get from here (Racine WI) to an address
certain in Philadelphia PA, the *only* way to do that with a single
conveyance product is to take an automobile. Seems to me multiple
conveyances - taking the shuttle bus to Mitchell Field, an airplane to
Philadelphia and then renting a car to go to the address - is a much better
application-specific solution.
Similarly, why not look at separate products to...
1. Communicate with a VAN/FTP site
2. Translate EDI and/or XML and/or whatever into a generic format.
3. Using a mapping product or 3GL program to integrate into the application.
Mercator Software has a great "any-to-any" mapping product; but their PC EDI
offering (Trading Partner PC/32) is, well, limited. (They should thank me
for the kind word, "limited").
Harbinger/Peregine TLW has a very nice user interface for operator-attended
communications and data entry, but it's so slow and just buggy enough I'd be
loathe to use it in a high-volume batch environment.
Gentran/400 is really nice for taking inbound EDI and moving to a flat file;
the outbound capabilities are not very powerful at all unless you're pretty
handy writing application programs to put the data into a format it likes.
TSI's Trading Partner/MVS has a great outbound API system - powerful if you
can write programs, terrible if you don't; inbound, I find their "screen
definitions" and "extract formatting" to be really obtuse and usually
irrelevant in a mainframe environment.
What's so wrong with picking cherries based on the specific application?
Yeah, it's convenient to have everything in one product, but get real: above
I list three very respected companies, none of which has a solution for
every possible circumstance, but each of which offers an outstanding product
for at least one aspect of the total application requirement.
IMSNHO, a multiple product solution should never be 'off the table' from day
one.
Michael C. Mattias
Tal Systems
Racine WI
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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